SignalsAZ.com Prescott News Podcast - NAZ Wranglers Season Kickoff with Fred and Robin DePalma | Prescott Valley Talks

Episode Date: March 28, 2025

Send us a text and chime in!In this episode, host Steve Bracety, President and CEO of the Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce, sits down with Fred and Robin DePalma, the dynamic ownership duo behind the Northern Arizona Wranglers. Check out the CAST11.com Website at: https://CAST11.com Follow the CAST11 Podcast Network on Facebook at: https://Facebook.com/CAST11AZFollow Cast11 Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/cast11_podcast_network

Welcome back to Prescott Valley Talks. My name is Steve Brissette, CEO, and the Prescott Valley Chamber of Commerce. And with me today is the Northern Arizona Wrangler's Ownership Group of Fred and Robin De Palma. Welcome, folks. Thank you. Thank you very much. Happy to be here. Yes.

Excited. guess our season kicks off this coming Saturday, huh? No, next day. The 29th. Right, right. Next Saturday. The 29th is our first game. And that's going to be a home game. And we're playing Fisher's Freight out of Indianapolis. And how is the team look this year, folks? Oh, man. I'm so excited. We have a whole new coaching staff. I don't even know how to put in words how amazing they are. They all have been in the league and coaching for many, many years. Their resumes are incredible. And what's exciting, is right now the IFL has as ranked as number 14 in coaching. What is it in everything? In everything. Like we're last and everything, but it's because they have no stats. They have no stats on our coaches. The players that

they've recruited, they're pulling them from a different pool. So it's going to be a nice surprise to everybody when we win all these games. Because they are incredible. It's going to be a great opportunity, nowhere to go about it, right? Exactly. Exactly. The coaches are loving it. They're laughing at it going like, Well, that's all right. Let that be your motivation. They don't know who we are is what it is. They don't know who we are and who we have on the team yet. So share with us the offense.

What kind of offense you're running this year and how is the quarterback look, the key position? You know, the hard thing with sharing all that right now is this is training camp. And I really don't have those answers. And that's why everyone doesn't understand. So we have 40 guys in town and they've been here training camp since last Saturday. Today, the coaches are making the cuts. And out of those 40, we're going to have 25 moving into their housing. Wow.

So when you say, How's the quarterbacks look? We have three of them. And they all look pretty good, but there's only two staying. I don't know which two. That's going to be up to the coaches. So it's hard to answer those questions. I've been watching them during practice.

I'm saying, to me, they look fine. But the coaches know what they're looking for to fit in the offense. And I was talking a couple of coaches about the quarterbacks. I like to ask the questions. And they seem to be pleased all three of them. So I really don't want to be in their shoes to be the one has sensitive. Tough decisions, huh? Well, it's been tense.

It's been tense the past couple days. Well, the thing is all three of them are so good. Whoever goes home is going to get picked up by another team. Oh, really? So, yeah, that's good. People, teams are waiting to see who we're letting go. Now, you can't put people on waivers or injury reserve or practice squads. They just get cut flat out.

Right. We're only allowed to have so many people on the roster. So it's 25 and a couple people that can be on IR. We had a couple key players that we brought out who got injured during training camp, but we feel they can turn it around in a couple weeks. So they're on our IR list, but they're not on our roster yet. So right. Anyone locally from the Prescott,

the area that we can cheer for? Yes, we have Brandon Fisher, one of our kickers. So he's locally, runs a local landscape company here. He kicked for us in 21. No, yeah, I think 21 and part of 22. And now he's back, tried back out for the team. Coaches liked him and he's back kicking again. Great. Is he going to make the cut you think? Is he safe? You know what? I think he is because we had other kickers at training tryouts when we had open tryouts and Brandon was there as well. And they're not in training camp. And neither is Brandon. Be honest with you. He's there at training camp, but they're only allowed to have so many in training camp,

and they don't start practicing kicking until next week. So instead of taking up a spot, that's just the way it is with teams. Instead of the kicker taking up a spot, they know who they're going to have, they're just going to say, we're going to wait to make our cuts, and then you can put on your uniform and start kicking with us. But they're not even practicing that right now. They're just trying to see who they're going to pick for their running back, who they're going to pick for their quarterback, who's going to be the receivers,

their line, their defense, everything. So I think Brandon's so far so good. But, you know, don't hold me to it. I'm not the coach. They could just have them showing up and teasing a bit, but I don't think they do that. And the Wranglers, it's business, correct? It's more than just a football team. Yeah.

Robin does most of that. I mean, there is a business behind it. I mean, teams just don't suddenly show up for free. I mean, you know, the arena isn't for free. We don't own it. It's funny, sometimes fans will write us and tell us what we need to do to change the arena. It's like, we're just a tenant. The arena is our landlord.

You know, so we can't make, we can't tear down walls in the arena. change things. Yeah, these are professional players, so they get a paycheck. You know, if the players will play for free, we'd be happy to give out free tickets. Oh, what can only wish, right? Yeah, that'd be nice. And they're pro. And, you know, it costs a little bit to have them out here. And so, you know, we need, we need, our slogan is no empty seats. Right. So no empty seats in that arena. Let's keep them here. Let's let's keep them in town. It's a great thing to have a professional sports team in town. Absolutely. And your background, I'm not mistaken, this is a fifth year of the team.

Yeah, we're going to our fifth season of the team. And this is your fourth year of ownership of the team. Yes. So in, in 21, the team started and we were just a local business sponsor of it. We've been a football fan forever with other teams that we won't mention. The rivals. I thought you were going to say the New York Giants. So in 22, I wanted to get involved in this business, so to say, speak. And so I bought 40% of the team and I was going to go open another state in another arena. But the person who opened the team didn't want to return after 22. We live here and we decided instead of going to another

state, let's just go and take over this one. So after 22, the 23 season, we kind of grab all the hats to wear to go ahead and work in the arena and run the organization. I love it. Locally owned, local players. I mean, this is truly a community team. It is. Absolutely. And you've had a lot of success. I mean, you got some awards recently, didn't you? you last year? Yeah, the team received lots of awards, which was really neat. Those were at the annual meeting, and they were presented. We had a lot of players to get awards. I couldn't even list them. It was great. We had a couple of rookies of the year, and our assistant coach, Coach Moran, who was local, who had passed away last year. He received assistant coach of

the year. That was a great honor. Our broadcast crew, which puts on our TV show, they received broadcast of the year with our announcers and Doug and his whole crew upstairs, making all that film work to go online. And then we received from our pairs in the league, executives of the year from the other owners. Congratulations. Thank you. That's pretty incredible. It was. It was a shock. But, you know, we believe in sharing with what we do. So I sent out a monthly email to all the other team owners of what we're doing here. Not coaching wise, not plays, you know, because we're against each other on the field, but we're trying to grow our league. So I believe rising tide lifts all ships. So if we're doing anything that seems to be working, I want to share it.

And hopefully I get some feedback on what other teams are doing. And that has now started through the league. And we do that in our other business as well. And the big things that they're impressed with is the community involvement that we bring in. You know, for our pregame, our halftime, our national anthem. I mean, we had elementary school choir by a Judd Elementary sing national anthem. We have Liberty traditional coming in and doing a pregame chess game with their chess club. We do a lot of charity work, a lot of support of the local charities.

And those are the things that are important to do and that they notice. You definitely serve as a benchmark and role model as to how to run a football team for sure. Thank you. Yeah. What are the biggest highlights so far you experienced? For me, I spend a little bit more time with some of the players and the coaches than Robin does. It's just watching these young men, you know, develop into moving up to a bigger league like the NFL, the CFL and seeing their excitement. Or are also watching them, what are they going to do with their lives after football?

Yes. And being able to assist them with that. So we have two things we want for the boys either move up or help them move on to a career. That transformation. Yes, yes. And so that's what I want. So I'll sit down and chat with them about where they're going to go and what they want to do for the ones that want to listen. And most of these guys, they do.

They've been through college. They have their degrees. Now they have to decide which way is it going to be. The football, no matter what, if you're in the NFL now, it only lasts so long. Was it? Not for long league? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Not for long NFL, right.

Well, you serve as a role model, as a mentor to these players. How can Prescott Valley help you out? No empty seats. Let's go. For a football game, I think we have about 4,500 seats and we're sold out. If we could sell out, the team will do okay to cover itself. But like you said earlier, is it a business? It is a business.

And, you know, nothing's free. So we have to pay for every, there's no such thing as a free ticket. Everybody calls us, give me a free ticket. It's really no such thing. charge for every ticket that we hand out. There's a fee behind it. But it's the, the team is owned by the community and we try to spread that word all the time. We just write out all the checks. But if the community support, the restaurants that help feed the players a couple times a month, the apartment complexes that they're living in that are giving us a decent deal without a doubt.

I mean, they're obviously a business as well, but they see we're grabbing so many rooms or they give us a little break. That's wonderful. The fans buying tickets and bringing their friends in and having their friends get tickets, that helps out. When I was talking to some of our managers and other business the other day, and I was like, you know, you ever drive by a restaurant at closed? And you're like, oh, man, that restaurant closed or maybe a store and you get a little bummed out. And my question is, when the last time you ate there?

Exactly. But when's the last time you shop there? You can't get bummed out of there gone if you haven't been there. So, well, I'm not saying that we're leaving, but I'm saying we want to be supported and be here. And we promise it'll be the best thing you do on a Saturday night. Yes. It's a lot of fun.

It really is a lot of fun. And, you know, it's interesting. There's only eight games. Right. That's it. Eight home games and eight on the road. It goes pretty quick. It does.

It does. And some exciting new things this year. One thing we put together, a family four pack. So family four pack of tickets includes hot dog and a drink and a ticket, $32 a person. Wow. So bring your family. That's actually a ticket, hot dog and a drink. That's a smoking deal.

Yeah, it is because it lowers the price of getting the hot dog and drink inside. So it's, you know, we just made that deal with the arena for that package. And how do we get tickets? So we go on a website or do we at the ticket office? If you're doing single game tickets, just go to the ticket office and you can get them right at the box office at the Florida Center. However, if you want to save 20% on your tickets, if you know for sure, you're going to go to those eight games, which I promise after you go to one, you're going to want to go to those eight games. Yes. You save 20% through season tickets.

And we do still have seats available for season tickets. And that you call us. Okay. Yeah. 9283795581 or NAZ Wranglers.com. Good job. Yeah. Good memory.

Yeah, there you go. It's hard to remember. We don't call that number often. I don't even know my cell number, so I can appreciate that. Right. So what else can we talk about with the Wranglers? I mean, this is your fourth year as ownership. It's got a good base, good fan base, solid momentum is building.

I mean, what are you specifically looking for for this year as far as growth opportunities? or, you know, even challenges you want to overcome. Yeah, well, you know, one thing we go back to growth and working with, like, local businesses, Robbins put together a lot of things to help the local businesses out to make it affordable. You know, we've taken, like, our dasher pads that everybody sees those in there. The banners on the walls. Okay.

So we've broken it down to we have a few of those available where a small business can just get one for one game. And that way they can see, hey, I've had, you know, 3,000 people eyes on my marketing for one game. Great. It helps us out. Great advertisement. the whole year. It's like, fantastic. Let's, let's, let's break things down to make it affordable for

everybody all the way down to our concourse tables. But she comes up with all that to help everybody out. So you get a vendor table on the concourse, 300 bucks. So you sit out there and interact with the fans, pregame and half time and kind of cat of audience. They're right there for you. 3500 people. Yeah. So, oh, I just thought of something else. And now I left my mind. Well, we have some rule changes this year, the IFL. I know some of our rules, it's almost the same as the outdoor game that was what we, call it the outdoor game, even though most like NFL teams are indoors. But the rules are a little bit different. Sometimes people get confused. So if you go to our website, there is a rules page and it'll

explain it all. Or if you go to the league's website, goifl.com, that'll also have a rules page. And there are some rules that have changed this year. So if you went for the deuce, which means kickoff, if you kick you through the upright, you get two points. So that was added last year or the I like that. Right. And so it makes it exciting. But if you missed and it went off through the end zone on either side. The first time the ball came to the 20, every time after that, you're penalized. The other team got on the 25. Okay. I like that. I like the 25. So I was not trying it all the time. And I was the only one, I think, in the room that voted that. So what it's going to be now is every time it goes out, it just goes to the 20. So it's not 20. Then the 25, they just want to make it

consistent and have it the whole time because it's confusing people. I said it should come to the 25. So everybody's not trying it every time. But nobody agreed with me. It's going to be on the 20. You are the minority looks like on that one. There's a thing that's called defense. defensive twist, and a lot of people hear the, see the flag for that one, nobody knows what it is. I still really can't explain it. I've had the defense explain it to me, and I kind of get it, but not good enough to tell everybody. Well, that's gone.

So there's not going to be any more defensive twist. In the last minute of the game, this is an old rule that we've now brought back. If the team with the ball, the offense doesn't move the ball forward, notice they can't take a knee. If they don't move forward, it's a penalty in the clock stops. Okay. So they have to gain at least an inch or the clock stops, unless there will. winning by, I think it's 16 points.

Then they're like, then you can take a knee because the other team's not going to bring it back in that minute. They don't do the tush push, do they? They can. Yeah, right. But with only three guys up front. You can't really maximize that. It's a little bit harder.

Yeah, it's a little bit harder to do. So, correct from wrong, but this is the same league that produced or where Kurt Warner came from. Yes. Yeah. Do we have any Kurt Warner's on the horizon or something that you see out there? It's like, wow, this person has, can go be in the NFL someday. Yeah, every year. I mean, every year we've had guys that get called up to camp, you know, and CFL and NFL.

Robin just was looking up on the IFL page. They put out their top quarterbacks in the league that they think so far, looking at their stats. Obviously, we're in 14. Again, there's 14 teams this year. Last year, there's 16. Two teams went dormant. Like, we're not playing New Mexico this year, but they're coming back next year. They're in the process of new ownership. And so they had to take a season off. But what was it? Out of the top five, three were ours? Yeah. Yeah, okay. That's what it is. So out of the top five of right now, three of the top five quarterbacks in the league that they're saying are the top five all play for us.

And you're going to keep two, right? Right now. They don't play for us now. I mean, they play for us in the past. Oh, okay. Past quarterbacks are now on other teams. So we've always done great with getting great coaches that bring in talent that nobody else is noticing. That you can develop.

And then they develop them. And they go someplace else else. Yeah, then everyone else wants them. That can make a little bit frustrating. It can, but it's just wonderful because, look, they don't know how to rate our quarterbacks. They don't know how to play against them. They don't know what they're doing. Josh Jones was rookie of the year last year.

He did wonderful things. He's in San Jose. We know how we plays. We have tape on them. The coaches can see it. They know what they're playing against now. You know his tricks. Right.

But our guys, nobody knows until we have our first game. So that's good. Good. Well, this is really exciting. I mean, football is football season. Exactly for us. Football season. Go Wranglers.

Go Wranglers. And I see you got a jersey there. Yeah. Yeah, we got new jerseys this year. Ooh. So here's a sneak peek. Yeah, the whole team has new jerseys and this is the replica of the new team's jerseys. And we brought this.

We brought this for Steve. So this is his jersey. So on Wrangler Wednesday in the Prescott Valley Chamber office, when it's Wrangler Wednesday, he now can represent. Absolutely. Can I suit up? Yeah. Yeah, you can suit up.

Yeah. I promise I won't go on the field. I tell the coach all the time. I'm good for one play. Just put me in for one and then give me some water, water, ice and everything else. Awesome. Carry around. But there we are, boom.

Those will be in our team shop. Yep, that's the new design and it kind of matches what the players are wearing. So number 25 in your program, but number one in our hearts. Exactly. There you go. Well, we're here live today with the ownership group of your Northern Arizona Wranglers. Fred and Robin DePama, any party words you can share? You know what I remember about I was going to say.

This is important. Oh. We're going to have a lot of giveaways for our fans this year. So a lot of giveaways during the game. So not only you're going to have a lot of fun, you're going to get a lot of free stuff. So I've been really pushing our sponsors and our local businesses to donate, you know, free food, free car washes, coupons to, you name it.

T-shirts, yeah. There's going to be T-shirt tosses, all kinds of fun. It's the community now. Yes. It's the Prescott Valley community and, you know, you both play a big partner. So thank you. Thanks. Yeah.

I mean, with Robin doing all those giveaways, it's getting to, again, our local businesses say, hey, don't just come down and throw. your ad up, we want you to go ahead and give things out to people to help them come to your place. And participate. Get that engagement. Exactly. Exactly. And we have a, we'll be announcing later to say something fun with the Mustangs happening this year. So we'll be making that announcement. Watch our pages. First game, March 29th. March 29th, the Finley-Totia Center is your Northern Arizona Wranglers. Well, Fred Robbins, thank you so much for coming on today. Truly appreciate it. You're with Steve Rossetti talking in Prescott Valley.

Thank you.